We believe that a healthy review system is one that respects and protects our community’s genuine feedback.
As the WYL platform and community continues to grow, we remain committed to updating this policy when necessary to help ensure that reviews reflect the honest, first-hand experiences of our home providers and residents.
We believe that a healthy review system is one that respects and protects our community’s genuine feedback.
For this reason, we take the removal of any review very seriously.
You can read WYL’s Review Policy here, but in short, this means a review may be removed if:
- The review is in violation of WYL’s Content Policy,
- The review is biased, or
- The review is irrelevant to the resident’s experience with a home provider and their property
Moderating against bias
Our community benefits most when reviews present an unbiased picture of the resident experience. WYL removes reviews when they exhibit inappropriate bias. Some examples: if a resident is attempting to extort a home provider being reviewed, has a conflict of interest, or competes with the home provider (individual, company or otherwise) being reviewed.
Extortion or incentivizing
Any attempt to use reviews or responses to force a person to do something they aren’t obligated to do is a misuse of our platform—and we don’t allow it.
People who use WYL aren’t allowed to tie positive reviews to promises of compensation or to threaten eviction or termination of lease if a desired outcome is not met. Violations may result in the restriction, suspension, or termination of your WYL account.
This policy prohibits:
- Residents threatening to use reviews or ratings in an attempt to force a home provider to provide refunds on rent, security deposits, any additional compensation, or a reciprocal positive review.
- Home providers requiring a resident to leave a positive review or rating, or forcing them to flag, delete, or dispute their own review in exchange for any type of refund or monetary gain, or a reciprocal reply review. Home providers also cannot offer discounted rent or a new lease in exchange for a resident revising, deleting, flagging or disputing an existing review.
- Home providers or residents asking someone to take specific actions related to a review in exchange for the resolution of a dispute.
This policy does not prohibit:
- Residents from contacting a home provider with a problem prior to leaving a review.
- A home provider or resident seeking refunds on things outlined in their lease and leaving a review—where that review is not used as a threat to sway the outcome of a resolution.
- A home provider from asking a resident to leave an honest positive review or rating reflecting a positive experience.
- A home provider or resident from revising a review within the time constraints for revision.
Conflict of interest
We will remove reviews where there are signs that the review was made for the sole purpose of inflating a home provider’s overall rating, or where we suspect that a resident’s lease never existed.
Accepting fake reviews in exchange for a positive review, using a second account to review yourself or your own listing, or providing something of value in exchange for positive reviews, are not allowed. Violations may result in the restriction, suspension, or termination of your WYL account.
Competitor reviews
Reviews written by competitors (for example: competing businesses, properties, property management companies, or organizations) for the purpose of dissuading others from leasing, renting, or driving business to other properties or home provider profile pages are not allowed.
Violations may result in the restriction, suspension, or termination of your WYL account.
Moderating for relevance
Reviews provide community members with information and insights that help them make better leasing decisions. Reviews are most helpful when residents accurately recount their experience and provide their honest opinions.
Where a review contains information that is unrelated to an experience as a home provider or resident, or is focused on something beyond the control of the person, property, or company being reviewed, our moderation team will weigh the relevance of the review by assessing:
- Does the review recount the reviewer's experience and provide their personal perspective?
- Is the review helpful to other members of the WYL community? Does it provide essential information about a home provider or property that would help others make more informed leasing decisions?
If WYL determines that the review contains no relevant information about a home provider or property, the review may be removed. Reviews that contain mostly irrelevant information are also subject to removal, but only where the otherwise relevant information would not be expected to meaningfully inform the booking decisions of other community members.
Examples of relevance violations and non-violations
- Irrelevant: "Don’t trust the laundromat down the street, its washers never work.”
- Relevant: "Don’t trust the laundromat down the street, its washers never work. However, if the home provider would fix the washers and dryers in the laundry room, you wouldn’t have to leave the building for laundry. Unfortunately, management never responds back to our concerns.”
- Irrelevant: "This resident was such a terrible person. I couldn’t imagine being married to her."
- Relevant: "The resident constantly paid their rent late, demanded repairs be completed in unrealistic timeframes, and then berated our staff when they did come and provide service.”